1260s
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The 1260s is the decade starting January 1, 1260 and ending December 31, 1269.
In Asia, Kublai Khan was proclaimed the supreme leader of the Mongol Empire, although his title was only partially recognized. After defeating his younger brother Ariq Böke, he moved his capital to Beijing; while he fought the southern Chinese Song Dynasty, the empire saw its first significant military defeats — first in Palestine at the hands of the Mamluks of Egypt, and later in the Caucasus. The Mamluks, led by their new sultan Baibars, quickly became a regional power in the Middle East by capturing a number of crusader states and repulsing Mongol attacks. The Empire of Nicaea succeeded in capturing Constantinople and the rest of the Latin Empire, thus re-establishing the Byzantine Empire.
In Europe, political strife and territorial disputes led to widespread warfare around the continent. England witnessed the Second Barons' War, a civil war fought over the aristocracy's disillusionment with King Henry III's attempts to maintain an absolute monarchy. The pope of the Catholic Church, aligned against the Hohenstaufen dynasty of the Holy Roman Emperor, succeeded in eliminating the line when the last male heir, Conradin, was killed by papal ally Charles I of Sicily, a Frenchman. Meanwhile, King Otakar II of Bohemia became the most powerful prince in Europe, expanding his territories through both warfare and inheritance. In other developments, both Iceland and Greenland accepted the overlordship of Norway, but Scotland was able to repulse a Norse invasion and broker a favorable peace settlement. In Spain, the Reconquista continued as several important cities were recaptured from the Moors. Political reforms were instituted in the election procedures of the pope and the doges of Venice, and the parliaments of Ireland and England met for the first time.
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